Sleeping Subway Beauty

If you’ve been to Japan, then you must have seen this sight many a time. The rocking motion and enveloping drone of the train and its inhabitants,the comfort of its seats (when there are seats to be had), the heater right beneath your legs sometimes, how could you resist the temptation?  

It's one of the most common scenes in Japan, to see people sleeping on trains during their daily commute. This is known as “inemuri”, which could be translated as "sleeping while present" and reflects the long work hours and intense work culture in Japan. Workers or students often have long commutes, and dozing off, whether it’s only a few minutes or the whole time, is seen as a way to catch up on much-needed rest or even to show dedication and commitment to one's job.

And if you paid close attention, you probably noticed that they would snap out of their slumbers where they needed to get off, when they looked so deep asleep a few seconds before! How is that possible? Well, if you listen carefully when you get to a station and the doors open, you will hear a jingle play, and that jingle will be different at every station the train calls. If they didn’t hear the conductor or the pre-recorded announcement calling the next station, these little melodies were made for them to recognize their stations and not risk missing them. This is the kind of small everyday life detail that I simply love about Japan.